Shark Problems

Tim and Lisa have sharks. As their hunting grounds are cleaned out, these cold-blooded killer fish have come to infest the pair’s inner city apartment. And that’s just the beginning of their problems.

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It started with the mystery object sitting in the kitchen sink. About ten centimetres long, shaped like a football and surrounded by a spiral of fins. Green so dark it was almost black. It looked like a zucchini designed by a seven-year-old boy.

Tim was tidying around the sink when he saw it. Lisa had gone out last night for a friend’s birthday so Tim ordered pizza and drank a few beers while he watched the footy, and empty bottles sat around the sink. Picking up the weird object, he found its texture felt rubbery like seaweed. Hollow, and split open. A couple of shrivelled cords trailed off one end like it was meant to plug into something. Maybe it was one of those Chinese vegetables he saw in the supermarket sometimes but never bought and couldn’t name. That didn’t explain where it had come from though, unless Lisa had brought it home. Tim rubbed the split in its side and water dribbled out. It even smelled a little like seaweed, and salt.

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Astronaut Exorcism

All There in the (Monster) Manual are stories based on creatures from the Dungeons & Dragons Monster Manual, over 2022 I released a different story fitting the theme every single week! Could be fantasy, science fiction, horror, or something else entirely, check them out on the main page of the website.

This Week’s Inspiration: Horned Devil

An astronaut has been possessed by a demon on the Babel Space Station. Exorcist and priest Francis Flannagan has no choice but to brave the final frontier and confront the creature in this alien battleground, 400 kilometres above the surface of the Earth.

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The Other Dog

All There in the (Monster) Manual are stories based on creatures from the Dungeons & Dragons Monster Manual, over 2022 I released a different story fitting the theme every single week! Could be fantasy, science fiction, horror, or something else entirely, check them out on the main page of the website.

This Week’s Inspiration: Doppelganger

The other dog stalks this home through rooms I cannot access, always on the other side of the glass. He wants to take my life for his own unless I can stop him.

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Hollywood Necromancy

For 2022, I’ve been wanting to write more ‘creature features’ and generally improve my short story writing. My partner got me a Dungeons and Dragons Monster Manual for my birthday so I came up with the idea of writing a story every week based on a different creature from that – All There in the (Monster) Manual. Hope you enjoy!

This Week’s Inspiration: Lich

Fishpeople protests, outpourings of grief for the King of Pop (and Atlantis), and raising the dead to sell fast food. It’s just another day in Hollywood.

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Hot Gossip

For 2022, I’ve been wanting to write more ‘creature features’ and generally improve my short story writing. My partner got me a Dungeons and Dragons Monster Manual for my birthday so I came up with the idea of writing a story every week based on a different creature from that – All There in the (Monster) Manual. Hope you enjoy!

This Week’s Inspiration: Half-Dragon

Another day, another supervillain. Red Rok and Frost Maiden race to the scene of a new threat, but there are far more interesting things to talk about than a twenty-foot-tall, fire-breathing lizard man.

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Eyes of the Beholder

For 2022, I’ve been wanting to write more ‘creature features’ and generally improve my short story writing. My partner got me a Dungeons and Dragons Monster Manual for my birthday so I came up with the idea of writing a story every week based on a different creature from that – All There in the (Monster) Manual. Hope you enjoy!

This Week’s Inspiration: Beholder

HAILING FROM THE FAR REALM, WHERE YOUR MOST SECRET TERRORS AND DARKEST DREAMS BECOME A BALEFUL REALITY. FLAWLESSLY CONCEIVED AND BORN OF THE MIND OF THE GREAT MOTHER, THE MIGHTY BEHOLDER goes to the optometrist to have its eyes checked.

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The Floor is Lava

For 2022, I’ve been wanting to write more ‘creature features’ and generally improve my short story writing. My partner got me a Dungeons and Dragons Monster Manual for my birthday so I came up with the idea of writing a story every week based on a different creature from that – All There in the (Monster) Manual. Hope you enjoy!

This Week’s Inspiration: Magmin

Playtime has never been so lethal, as Kevin and his friends discover the floor has transformed into bubbling, searingly hot, molten lava. Not everyone will survive as they make the treacherous journey from playroom to kitchen, across the dining room and to freedom through flames and choking clouds of smoke, pursued by evil lava monsters.

Trigger Warning: Children Dying Horribly

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The Brains That Wouldn’t Obey

For 2022, I’ve been wanting to write more ‘creature features’ and generally improve my short story writing. My partner got me a Dungeons and Dragons Monster Manual for my birthday so I came up with the idea of writing a story every week based on a different creature from that – All There in the (Monster) Manual. Hope you enjoy!

This Week’s Inspiration: Grell

They cannot be reasoned with, they cannot be bargained with, they absolutely will not be stopped. Genre conventions, logic, and good taste cannot restrain these merciless and multi-talented brains. Only one thing is for certain, they will not obey.

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Two Heads Are Better Than One

For 2022, I’ve been wanting to write more ‘creature features’ and generally improve my short story writing. My partner got me a Dungeons and Dragons Monster Manual for my birthday so I came up with the idea of writing a story every week based on a different creature from that – All There in the (Monster) Manual. Hope you enjoy!

This Week’s Inspiration: Ettin

Once upon a time, a very clever merchant fell afoul of a nasty, brutish ogre with two heads… Will his cleverness be enough to help him escape an unpleasant fate? A fairy tale with a moral message.

Trigger Warning: Gore

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Henry

For 2022, I’ve been wanting to write more ‘creature features’ and generally improve my short story writing. My partner got me a Dungeons and Dragons Monster Manual for my birthday so I came up with the idea of writing a story every week based on a different creature from that – All There in the (Monster) Manual. Hope you enjoy!

This Week’s Inspiration: Death Dog

Trigger Warning: Loss of a Pet

Six months after their dog, Henry, passed away, Darrell and Molly are considering getting a new pet but moving on is hard to do. That is until the god of death Hades arrives at their door with a mysterious box.

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